468 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 7,1883. 
rooted stocks and budding knives are likely to be drugs in the 
market, and I shall be able to get them cheap. 
At the same time I may remark that I allowed in my last that 
a few Hybrid Perpetuals would grow and do well on their own 
roots. Mr. Sanders names only eighteen. He might add Souvenir 
de la Malmaison to his list. But this is a small number indeed, 
and almost justifies one in saying that it looks more like “the 
exception which proves the rule ” than a rule of itself. 
“ A Judge ” says, “ I will perhaps admit that there is no more 
difficulty in striking cuttings of John Hopper, La France, Alfred 
Colomb, and Gloire de Dijon than there is in rooting portions of 
Briar and Manetti growths, and that this after all is the real 
question for the purpose of comparing the two methods of in¬ 
crease.” But I will not admit this ; and, according to my expe¬ 
rience, there is much difference between the ease with which Briar 
and Manetti cuttings may be rooted, the latter being far the easiest 
to strike. 
And if Mr. Sanders was cruel in limiting me to eighteen Roses, 
what shall I say of “A Judge ” who sentences me to four only? 
As to the economy of budding, “ A Judge ” remarks on the cart¬ 
loads of prunings burned annually ; but as we cannot prune in 
September and October, or put in cuttings in March, I must join 
in lamentation of the waste, but do not see how it is to be rectified. 
Now, the following seems to me to be economy. Last summer 
I noticed in a friend’s garden a nice plump-budded shoot of 
Countess of Rosebery about a foot long. As I had not this 
variety I begged the shoot, carried it home and inserted the buds, 
seven in number, in seven Manetti stocks. One of these buds has 
not started yet, but I think it will. I have, however, six strong 
young plants with altogether thirteen shoots, three of them over 
a foot long already, and I should like to back those plants agains 
cuttings put in last autumn and similarly treated. 
It will be evident therefore, I fear, that I am at present uncon¬ 
verted. I still hold by the dictum of Mr. Cant, “ Nearly all this 
class (H.P.’s) grow and flower better budded than on their own 
roots.” But if anyone beats him for the championship this year 
with blooms taken from Roses on their own roots I promise to 
devote myself to cuttings thenceforth.—A. F. M. 
I HAVE written before on this very interesting topic, and have 
read all I see in your pages thereon. I agree with Mr. A. J. 
Sanders, on page 421, that the fresher the cuttings are the greater 
the success ; but on the other hand I generally have a small per¬ 
centage of success from the cuttings I make of plants bought in 
the autumn. These I treat like my ordinary plants—cut out in 
the autumn all the shoots and wood that will not be wanted for a 
head in the spring. The cut-out pieces are then divided into short 
pieces and put in to take their chance, and a per-centage, small 
I grant, yet worth the trouble, succeed. I do not quite see why 
Mr. Sanders cuts out the two lower eyes. I can understand it in 
making Manetti plants, but for Roses on their own roots I fancy 
the buds underground have often saved the cutting. I have 
adopted my good friend Mr. W. Taylor’s plan of the wood sides 
and sheets of glass over, pasted at the joins, with great success, 
and also his directions as to cutting straight across at the foot 
instead of slanting. 
It seems to me, however, that the greater number of persons 
who have given their experience on this subject have made cuttings 
rather with a view to pot plants than to outdoor specimens. Even 
Mr. Sanders talks as if he potted all his cuttings, and afterwards, 
“ late in May,” planted these out. But I fancy there are many 
amongst us who have neither the time, the space, nor the tact to 
manage them as pot plants, and want from our cutting bed to 
plant them out. Now, I for one, would be grateful to Mr. W. 
Taylor or Mr. Sanders for their experience in this direction. Let 
me state the difficulties I have met with. First, then in the small 
frame or handlight the cuttings are closely packed, and, as with 
care almost all strike, the plants become drawn up and tender. 
I have met this difficulty somewhat in this way by subsequently 
putting a somewhat larger frame over them on bricks, so as to 
bring the glass much higher than before, and also by making 
the glasses slip in a groove so as to be able to give air. Of 
course, with a Cucumber frame this is easy. Then I have generally 
left those in the frame till autumn. Now many of these will 
during the summer make very good plants, some with shoots 
3 feet long. 
The following autumn, after planting as cuttings, I have essayed 
treating these as plants, and shifting them. In this I have, had 
not a few disasters, the worst being that the junction of root and 
parent stem appears very frail, and a very slight strain separates 
it. I attribute, perhaps erroneously, the death of not a few of 
these plants after planting out to this fact. Last year I took out 
some, but have left others in what I may call the “ cutting bed.” 
These are breaking splendidly, sending up grand shoots; and I 
apprehend they will not only give very good blooms this season, 
but that they will move with more success this autumn. But 
this plan keeps them two years in the cutting bed, and I fear will 
not do for the small frames where the packing together is tolerably 
close, and where so maDy strike. 
I think in the early spring not a few cuttings strike after having 
made some growth from want of a little watching, especially if 
the sun be hot and the lights left on. In my experience the 
following Roses will repay the attempt :—Madame Sophie Fropot, 
Crown Prince, Madame Rothschild, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Marie 
Baumann, Alfred Colomb, Hippolyte Jamain, Charles Lefebvre 
among the Hybrid Perpetuals strike well; and amongst the Teas 
Madame Marie Van Houtte, Catherine Mermet, and Souvenir d’un 
Ami may be added to Mr. Sanders’ list.—Y. B. A. Z. 
A gentleman who has inspected the Kentish Obchards 
informs us that the only really good crop of the year will be that 
of Apples. The Pear crop will be very thin. Cherries set well, 
but in consequence of the cold nights and dry hot days they are 
falling in shoals. Plum3 there are scarcely any, Victoria bearing 
by far the best crops. There are few or no Damsons, and the 
Filbert crop will be very light. Bush fruits, such as Gooseberries 
and Currants, are extremely variable, in some districts the crops 
being good, in others light. Strawberries and Raspberries are 
promising, but rain is greatly needed, and if it does not fall soon 
the fruit will be small. 
- A correspondent mentions as worthy of note a grand 
crop OP Figs at Chatsworth, “ as many as thirteen or fourteen 
fruits on 18 inches of wood—in fact the house was smothered with 
Figs in all stages of growth ; the trees are trained on a curved 
trellis Peach tree-like fashion, and a finer crop of Figs can 
scarcely be imagined.” He adds, that in one of the plant houses 
Anthurium Andreanum has spathes 9^ long by 7^- inches wide. 
-- Fine specimens of the Golden Sycamore are rarely 
seen, but we recently noticed a beautiful example in a suburban 
garden which well showed the attactions of the tree at its best. 
It was over 20 feet high with a fine bushy head, the foliage being 
of a rich golden hue, which was rendered even brighter by con¬ 
trast with a large Horse Chestnut near it. 
- The second evening meeting of the Royal Hor¬ 
ticultural Society at Burlington House is announced for 
Tuesday next, the 12th inst., when the following papers will be 
read:—Mr. W. Goldring on “ Cypripediums ; ” Dr. Masters, 
“ Notes on Conifers ; ” G. Maw, Esq., F.L.S., on “ Crocuses; ” 
and Herr Max Leichtlin, “Notes from Baden-Baden.” 
- A favourite flower at the present time is the double 
Poet’s Narciss, of which large quantities are now to be seen in 
the London markets and on the hawkers’ barrows and stalls. 
The blooms are large, very full, of wax-like substance, pure white, 
and exceedingly fragrant. Indeed they bear a close resemblance 
to Gardenias, and form by no means a despicable substitute for 
them. 
- A correspondent sends us the following note on an 
ancient Yew at Ormiston Hall, East Lothian. From a 
stem measuring 17 feet in circumference at 3 feet from the 
ground rise great limbs which bend over, forming an arch, 
and reach the ground at about 20 feet from the stem. Round 
the outside of the branches the circumference is 550 feet, and 
the height is in proportion. Wishart, one of the early Re- 
